2009-2010 Meal Planning

Now that the kids are cooking, they all want something different and are willing to make it. My problem is all the left-overs and waste (not to mention trying to plan for all those people's whims). So even though they complain -- we all eat the same thing for lunch & dinner. Sunday nights may be a free-for all and Thursdays are left-overs, so if they want to do something unique with their left-overs I don't really care. I know it cramps their style to have their meals decided for them, but they can do anything they want when they're on their own. I have to do what's best for the whole family including our budget and my time. Barbara has a great food blog.

This school year will be

• Monday - crockpot (because we'll be gone all day on Mondays starting in Sept.) Nancy also sent me this crockpot site - Thanks, Nancy!
• Tuesday - casserole (frozen ahead - shepherd's pie / sausage & rice bake)
• Wednesday - mexican (Burritos, Mexican pizza on tortillas, Nachos, Quesadillas, Taco, or Taco Salad) - the nice thing about these meals is that they all use approximately the same ingredients, so it's not hard to keep stuff on hand and if someone is desperate to have something different they can do it at the table.
• Thursday left-overs (or frozen chinese veggies stir fried w/ whatever meat is left-over)
• Friday - meatless (tuna & noodles/ raemen noodles & fzn. veg / baked potatoes & fixins / cheese pizza / mac & cheese) or fish 2x/month - it's too expensive to have each week
• Saturday - italian (Lasagna / veggie lasag. / lasag. roll-ups/ spahetti/ ziti bake/ chicken alfredo with broccoli / cheese stuffed shells / meatloaf -is meatloaf an Italian meal?)
• Sunday - we only eat 2 meals on Sunday, so a big breakfast at brunch time and a big main meal (turkey & stuffing / a ham / pork roast / roast)

• We also plan our lunches (mostly packed lunches) & breakfasts because we have 2 days we're gone and it can take too long even when we're home if we're not all eating the same thing.
• Breakfast favorites - Frozen saus. buscuits / frzn. muffins We roughly plan out the sides and deserts. 1 side with lunch, 2 sides with dinner and desert every other night for a total of 90 sides and 15 deserts for the month (example: 1 jar of applesause would last us as a side for 4 meals).